What I do with Backer: Sara’s story
#userstories
What I do with Backer: Sara’s story
Saving money doesn’t have to be complicated or scary, and hope isn’t necessarily the best strategy, says 4-year-old mom to Charlie, Sara.
This week, we speak to Sara Foster, an accounting clerk and illustrator from Tampa Bay, FL who is saving money with her modern family for her three-year-old daughter Charlie Lynn. She talks about learning that, when it comes to saving, “hope is not a strategy” and it doesn’t have to be complicated or scary.
Tell us about your family set up, the kids you love you are saving for and why you started?
Sara:
I live with my husband Tony, and three-year-old daughter Charlie Lynn Sweatt. Our family also includes Tony’s 24-year-old daughter, Toni, my brother Michael, who moved from Boston this year to help care for and spend time with my mother, Margaret, who is fighting lung cancer. It is a perfectly modern family with all its uniqueness and centers a bit around my mother and daughter by virtue of her matriarchy and Charlie’s unchallenged status as the only grandchild.
What was your saving approach from childhood, and how has your approach to money and saving changed?
Sara:
I was really lucky in that my parents paid for college, and an art degree at that! I did take out a few loans towards the end but I know how lucky I was. Knowing that, it wasn’t going to be so easy for me to offer my daughter the same freedom.
What does saving money with Backer mean to you?
Sara:
When I did my Series 7 exam to be a securities representative, the training was really focused around people’s feelings surrounding finance, not the finances themselves. At one time, I was selling insurance and investment products and I heard from people all the time: “I hope we will have enough,” but my trainer used to say: “Hope is not a strategy”.
What’s something you’d pass on to the next generation of kids when it comes to saving for their futures?
🙌
Saving money for college, for your first house, to start a business, for retirement doesn’t have to be complicated and it’s not scary. Neither is it the same thing as chasing a quick buck.
You put your money down at Starbucks or wherever and the gains are short lived. Set up some automated small transfers and watch with pride as your money grows into something you can really enjoy.
